Showing posts with label stealing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label stealing. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Australia: Cop Watch - Cops are Top at corruption

Victorian Cops win at corruption - yet again!

Nov 12 news.com.au

CORRUPTION investigators are closing in on several Victoria Police officers.

Office of Police Integrity director George Brouwer revealed yesterday that the OPI had uncovered convincing evidence of police corruption.

He told the Herald Sun these activities included:

STEALING while executing search warrants on homes.

DRUG dealing and giving the green light to other dealers.

INTIMIDATING fellow officers into not reporting corrupt activity.

CORRUPT associations with private investigators and security industry staff.

INAPPROPRIATE use of confidential Victoria Police information.

USING the bank accounts of fellow officers to hide cash and avoid paying tax and child support.

The OPI's corruption branch has issued 136 summonses in which people have been ordered to hand over documents and compelled to answer questions - or face criminal charges for refusing.

Mr Brouwer said his investigators had prepared briefs of evidence against several police.

"We are closing in on a number of corrupt officers and we will be closing in on many more," he said.

In an interview to mark the OPI's first anniversary, Mr Brouwer and assistant director Graham Ashton also revealed:

THE OPI is conducting 40 separate investigations into allegedly corrupt activity by serving and former Victoria Police officers.

MORE than 50 officers will be investigated over unexplained assets involving millions of dollars.

BASIC anti-corruption measures adopted by police forces around Australia have not been implemented by Victoria Police.

THE OPI's use of secret sting operations to trap suspect officers is about to be dramatically increased.

AN investigation has started into inappropriate use of capsicum spray amid complaints of over-zealousness.

THE OPI has held 24 secret hearings in which some officers have confessed to corrupt activity and others have dobbed in allegedly corrupt colleagues.

Mr Ashton said some officers had appeared before the secret hearings as a means of reporting corrupt activity without fear of reprisal from fellow police.

"We have had police in our in-camera hearings confessing their crimes and also implicating other police in serious criminal offences," he said.

"The OPI provides avenues that haven't otherwise been available in terms of treatment for corruption, in that it may not always be our preference to bring officers before the courts, where they have a good record of being acquitted.

"It might well be that we use our coercive process and the outcome is that the officer leaves the force.

"In certain circumstances that is the most efficient remedy to a particular problem."

Mr Brouwer said the OPI had spent the past 12 months recruiting expert staff, buying the latest equipment, setting up a surveillance team and using the royal commission-type coercive powers granted by the State Government.

"All that background work is already bearing fruit. We have issued 136 summonses and had 24 in-camera hearings.

"We have got 36 proactive investigations under way, four reactive ones and 21 major complaints to look at.

"They cover the whole gamut of corruption, from police bashings to bullying to allegations of drug dealing and green-lighting drug dealers.

"We are very much down the track and are rapidly closing in on people.

"Already we have identified a number of people on whom we have evidence which is incontrovertible."

[The real answer is the OPI are just a farce force to get those cops who don't do noble cause corruption taken out of the force. But what they 're really doing is getting others off the hook. Make it look like Christine Nixon and Simon Overland are Angels? Overland has corruption written all over his face.]

By Cop Watcher posted 16 November 05

Related:

ACT Police sly avoidance of complaints accountability a bad precedent? "The ACT Policing Annual Report failed to cite the number of complaints made against it, the number investigated, and consequent actions taken against AFP employees. The report merely states (p 27) that there were only four substantiated complaints in 2004-05."

Man shot by police in ASIO fishing raids
A man shot by police in fishing raids this morning is in a satisfactory condition after undergoing surgery at Liverpool Hospital in Sydney's south-west.

Cop Watch - police distribute corpse photos
Of the 6oo coppers who received the photo, presumably on worktime paid for by the taxpayer, 183 officers forwarded the email, including 50 outside the police force.

Australia: Cop Watch - drugs in the force
Taking the illegal drugs leads to the officers associating with drug suppliers, stealing drugs, stealing money and supplying friends, and providing confidential information to the drug suppliers.

Australia: Cop Watch - Secrecy, Brawling
KEEPING TO ITS POLICY OF SECRECY AT ALL COSTS, police forces around the country disclose little information about their activities unless enquirers force them to do so under freedom of information laws.

Corrupt police planting DNA evidence at crime scenes
Others have raised concerns about corrupt police planting DNA evidence at crime scenes.

Australia: Cop Watch - drugs in the force
Taking the illegal drugs leads to the officers associating with drug suppliers, stealing drugs, stealing money and supplying friends, and providing confidential information to the drug suppliers.

The reckoning of a police whistleblower
A decade after crooked cop Trevor Haken rolled over at the Wood Royal Commission into police corruption, he remains in fear of his life and says he has been left out in the cold by authorities, having reached his used-by date.

Australia: Copwatch - pornographic emails
Copwatch -sexually explicit emails in Western Australia - Victoria cops ask for freedom to target Muslims - Former ASIO head says Victorian corruption now worse than ever - Coppers out of control in driving pursuits in NSW - Drink-driving copper 5 times over the limit in Tasmania - Fans of Ned Kelly fire 40 shots into a memorial plaque at Stringybark Creek.

Police drivers sneer at the rules
NSW police involved in high-speed car pursuits have lied, ignored commands to stop and switched radio frequencies to dodge official supervision while taking part in chases, internal service documents reveal.

Australia: Cops on Drugs
An illicit drug culture exists within the ranks of the NSW Police Service with young cops found to be taking speed, cocaine and ecstasy.

Victorian cops the most corrupt in Australia
A weekly round up of news on the cops. Former Australian Crime Commission Chair says Victorian cops are the most corrupt in Australia -- so they are given extra powers -- and so Melburnians can be patrolled by the army -- and have business deals with McDonalds. Top cops in NSW cleared after investigation -- but another one charged with child slavery. Western Australian police officer leaves the force under secrecy -- and Canberra hospital nurse tells the Federal Police to bugger off.

Cop Watch - The threat of privatised state power
Cop Watch will stay silent on proposed anti-terrorist laws and the arrest of peace activist Scott Parkin as so many others are writing about it, but a moment needs to be spent on private security guards - the private army of the state.

Cop Watch - Tweed Heads Terrorism brings town to standstill
Another terror attack in Australia brings Tweeds Heads (NSW) to a standstill - police brake speed limit to get footy player to footy match - woman ends up dead because of police failure, according to coroner - corrupt corruption commissioner might end up in prison - 14 year old girl gets locked up by police unlawfully - ex-copper gets massive $650,000 pay-out.

A copper's lot may not be happy, but it is certainly well paid
NSW Police to set up full time riot squad following Forbes protests - no one wants to be Commissioner of Police in NSW - no one wants to be a copper in SA - another copper rapes a juvenile - more secrecy bungles in Victoria - more drugs for the cops on duty - Justice Wood (former Commissioner into Police Corruption) says little has changed in 10 years - cops on corruption charges get stressed out and get compo.

Cop Watch: When permanent head injuries ruled to be reasonable force Former copper kidnaps and rapes 10 year old (allegedly) - Commission rules that police violence that leads to serious and permanent head injuries is 'reasonable' - more police lies on the de Menezes killing in London by terrorist police officers - NSW Police Association criticise A30 Opera House cost of policing - Victorian Police stuff up traffic tickets (again).

Cop Watch: No. 4 Terrorism in Ballarat
Terrorism in Ballarat - former Sydney copper sues the police after becoming drug addict - Victorian Police unlawfully releases 'up to 20,000 pages' of confidential files.

Australia: Cop Watch No. 3
This round-up includes: disgraced officers may get reinstated with back pay - more confidential information gets released into the public domain by police - body searching at the Sydney Opera House - and Irish police pissed off over WA police poaching campaign in Ireland.

Australia: Copwatch No.2
A review of what the boys and girls in blue have been up to shows that their respective juices have been stimulated by their ability to demand greater and greater police powers.

Australia: Cop Watch
The roundup this week - dodgy riot gear, shooting French photographers, senior coppers being 4 times over the legal limit, dodgy promotions in NSW, more terrorism powers in WA and drug-dealing coppers in Melbourne (it is alleged).

Assaulted, intimidated or harassed in custody?
"Then make an Apprehended Violence Order application against the police, says assault victim Ms Teresa Kiernan.

NSW Police Force: 2 dead, $1 million dollars to catch a thief?
NSW police have expressed concern about their response to the Macquarie Fields riots in south-western Sydney after a police pursuit that killed two young youths Dylan Rayward 17, and Mathew Robertson, 19 that went horribly wrong.

OUR STORIES MUST BE TOLD. THEY HAVE TO BE
On Sunday 13th February, a Community gathering will be held to enable all people to remember the death of one of our young Community members, 'TJ' Hickey.

Vic police chief moves to sack officers
The Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police, Christine Nixon, has moved to dismiss two police officers as part of a crackdown on corruption and says up to 20 more dismissals could follow.

Vic flop cop warns there's more corruption
Victorian Police Chief Commissioner, Christine Nixon, says Victorians should brace themselves for more evidence of police corruption.

Vic police corruption report tabled in Parliament
The Victorian Ombudsman's report on the Ceja Taskforce and drug related corruption in Victoria police has been tabled in State Parliament.

Bent police compromise Bulldogs gang-rape case
Deputy Commissioner Dave Madden could have compromised gang-rape investigation? Steve Mortimer resigned!

More NSW Police Corruption?
Line of fire? [Bullshit! Line of Lick Arse Noble Cause NSW Corrupt Cops] (clockwise from top left) Deputy Commissioner Dave Madden, Assistant Commissioner Peter Parsons, Superintendent Dave Swilkes, Assistant Commissioner Bob Waites and Superintendent Dave Owens.

NSW Cop suspect in murder?
A sacked Sydney police officer has finished giving testimony at a hearing into his corrupt activities over the past eight years. Christopher John Laycock was yesterday recalled to the witness stand at the Police Integrity Commission (PIC).

Corrupt NSW police officer sacked
New South Wales Police Commissioner Ken Moroney has sacked an officer who confessed to being involved in corrupt activities over the past eight years.

Policeman draws blank on fake raids
A suspended Sydney policeman has told an inquiry that he has "little recollection" of the details of fake police raids he set up.

Officer planned to kidnap criminals
A senior Sydney police officer who has admitted taking money for tipping off a child porn suspect had also been planning to kidnap criminals and extort money from them, the Police Integrity Commission heard yesterday.

Police offer protection to family following gang rape allegations
The parents of a 14-year-old girl claim their daughter was gang-raped in Sydney earlier this year, and have raised concerns about corrupt policeman Detective Sergeant Christopher Laycock's review of the case.

NSW police prosecutor charged with child porn possession
A New South Wales police prosecutor has been charged with the possession of child pornography.

Police, teachers charged in child porn bust
One-hundred-and-fifty people, including police officers and teachers, have been arrested in what the Federal Police (AFP) describe as Australia's biggest Internet child pornography bust.

A corrupt way to treat the community?
I seen the police bleeding on Nine's Sunday program arguing that promotion should depend on how many crimes police have solved and not how many brains they have and that was coming from police commissioner Ken Moroney and Police Minister John Watkins?

Judges Blood Sample: After the fact of the fact of a hangover?
Lawyers say New South Wales Supreme Court judge Jeff Shaw should not give police his own sample of blood taken after he crashed his car near his Sydney home last month.

NSW police drug amnesty under review
A drug amnesty for the New South Wales police force is under review, Police Commissioner Ken Moroney has said.

Police to uphold law not decide mental health
A diagnosis of mental illness could be made over the phone instead of in person, and involuntary psychiatric patients could lose the right to have their case reviewed by a magistrate, under proposed changes to NSW mental health laws.

Redfern police need education not weapons
According to the description of one senior police officer, the ACLO called out on the afternoon before the Redfern violence escalated was "hopeless, intoxicated and had no driver's licence."

Micklebergs sue senior police officer for defamation
The Mickelberg brothers are suing a senior policeman over comments he made after their convictions for the Perth Mint swindle were quashed.

Mickelbergs win 20-year fight to clear their names
A legal battle spanning more than two decades ended today when two brothers accused of stealing more than $650,000 in gold bullion from the Perth Mint had their convictions quashed.

The filthy NSW Police Integrity Commission!
Ten years after a royal commission exposed the corruption extending to the heart of the NSW Police there has been no change in police culture, and any change would be difficult to bring about because the government is the problem.

Funding undermining witness protection: Vic police?
Hodson's security camera almost certainly recorded the approach of their killer or killers, but homicide detectives could not find the camera's VHS tape. Hodson's home security system had been reviewed by the Ethical Standards Department's technical support unit.

Anti-crime watchdog needed in Victoria: Opposition
Victorian Opposition leader Robert Doyle says the latest claims of police corruption need to be investigated by an independent crime and anti-corruption commission.

Victorians want corruption commission, poll finds
A new survey shows Victorians overwhelming support a royal commission into allegations of police corruption. An ACNielsen poll? For the Age newspapers shows 81 per cent of those surveyed are in favour of a royal commission or similar independent inquiry. Only 16 per cent are against the idea.

The words out! The government is the problem
The Federal Government says it wants to establish an independent national anti-corruption body to improve accountability in organisations like the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Crime Commission because they're corrupt. The body would have royal commission powers and be permitted to intercept phone calls.

New unit investigates unsolved deaths?
A new police unit has been established to investigate more than 360 unsolved deaths in New South Wales, with many of the deaths dating back more than 30 years.

Gangland target? Or police decoy? Refuses protection
Victorian Assistant Commissioner of Crime Simon Overland says the man who was the target of an alleged planned gangland killing has refused police protection.

Vic police chief moves to sack officers
The Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police, Christine Nixon, has moved to dismiss two police officers as part of a crackdown on corruption and says up to 20 more dismissals could follow.

Vic prosecutors to drop corruption case
The Office of Public Prosecutions in Victoria will drop drug-related charges against a suspended police officer tomorrow after an informer due to testify in the case was murdered last month.

Vic flop cop warns there's more corruption
Victorian Police Chief Commissioner, Christine Nixon, says Victorians should brace themselves for more evidence of police corruption. She says the community will be shocked when the cases against police officers are heard in court.

Vic police corruption report tabled in Parliament
The Victorian Ombudsman's report on the Ceja Taskforce and drug related corruption in Victoria police has been tabled in State Parliament.

Channel Nine judge finds Saleh Jamal Guilty?
Why would a man carry out a shooting attack on a police station in Sydney's south-western suburbs? Because police wouldn't give him a licence? Because police owed him money?

POLICE INVESTIGATE THEMSELVES: GIVE A DOG A BONE?
When the Ombudsman investigates police in most States and Territories of Australia they set about asking the police to investigate themselves to see if there is any validity to a complaint.

Vic police silent on witness protection breach
Victorian police have been forced to defended the Witness Protection Program again, after an alleged incident involving a police informer. Channel Nine News said two gunmen raided a Victorian informer's hideout in Queensland.

Former Vic drug squad head working for NSW
It has been revealed that the former head of the disgraced Victorian drug squad is now a senior investigator at the New South Wales Police Integrity Commission (PIC).

Penalty given to police officer in corruption case under fire
The Victorian Opposition has criticised the penalty handed down to a Victorian police officer who tried to find the home address of an officer investigating corruption. Mr Wells says the officer received a $2,500 fine and was transferred to a different area.

Bracks crime team 'not up to job'
Steve Bracks was "fiddling while Melbourne burns", a respected senior crimefighter said yesterday, as the state Ombudsman was attacked for being ill-equipped to tackle entrenched police corruption.

Vic corruption fighter tells of intimidation
A senior Victorian police corruption investigator says fellow officers have intimidated and threatened him.

Bullet threat won't stop corruption probe, police say
The Victorian police force says threats against internal investigators will not stop it from weeding out corrupt police and bringing them to justice.

Police corruption linked to underworld slayings
The chairman of Victoria's Ceja police internal corruption task force has admitted there is a link between police corruption and Melbourne's gangland killings.

Vic police corruption 'worst ever', former judge says
A former Federal Court judge last night described corruption in the Victoria police force as the worst ever. Sir Edward Woodward told a Criminal Bar Association function, a royal commission would be expensive and would be hindered by the backlog of police corruption cases.

Redfern drug dealers: Who is Mr Big?
A senior Redfern police officer says a flourishing illegal drug trade is the main cause of problems in Redfern's Aboriginal community, known as The Block. But just like Kings Cross it doesn't get cleaned up and the Mr Big's are living like pigs. Ha ha. That's right someone supplies and someone accumulates large sums of money and someone has targeted Redfern and allows it to flourish there.

Bulldogs simply not the best!
SIMPLY NOT THE BEST AND DEFINITELY NOT BETTER THAN ANYONE, ANYONE I'VE MET.

Why the Bulldogs rape case failed?
AFTER two months of turmoil, the rape case against six Bulldogs rugby league players has collapsed, with police saying there was insufficient evidence to press charges. IT is the moment any investigator dreads. [Just plain rubbish and a cover-up.]

NSW Police seizing assets to bolster budgets?
Seized assets to bolster police budgets is going to place crime solving into the corporate arena. Why should they go after a common criminal who is poor? Instead they'll be searching for assets and then solving crime. After all, police budgets will depend on it.

Court accuses police of planting evidence
A magistrate in the south-western New South Wales city of Wagga Wagga says police there nearly beat a man to death, fabricated evidence about him, and later lied in court about the incident.

NSW ex-Inspector Gadget claims credibility again
Just how credible is this former cop? Small's claim on Four Corners [Walls, a government propaganda machine], tonight, [that], the Government warned about Redfern problems before the riot. Like he's Mr squeaky-clean? Bad news more like it, Small was the say anything, do anything, ex-cop from hell for Bob Carr and his cronies.

Gang-rape, police, disparity and the law..
The young woman and her friend have told police they met the players in Coffs Harbour on the evening after the Bulldogs played a trial match there and went back to the team's hotel with them.

Cops Leak: Bulldogs accused of rape at Coffs Harbour
Police are warning media outlets they may face criminal charges if they release confidential information about investigations. The call comes after the details of an assault on a woman at Coffs Harbour were read on a commercial radio station in Sydney yesterday morning.

Capsicum spray killed Brisbane man
Remember one "Flick" and they're gone. A 26-year-old man has died in Brisbane after a scuffle with police in the inner-city suburb of Highgate Hill. Police say they went to a unit complex just after midnight to speak to the man. Inspector Ian Robinson says police used capsicum spray and the man collapsed and died.

Clive Small, NSW Inspector Gadget
NSW Police has revived controversial plans for a specialist discriminative squad to tackle the wave of violent crime that has plagued Sydney's south-west for more than a decade.

Man wrongly imprisoned awarded $1m
A Sydney man who was acquitted of murder has won more than $1 million in damages for wrongful arrest and imprisonment. The New South Wales Supreme Court has agreed with Garry Raymond Nye's said that the charge was maliciously laid. Acting on a tip-off, [?], police arrested and charged the 51-year-old with the shooting murder of Roy Thurgar at Randwick in Sydney's east in 1991. He spent 16 months in custody before he was acquitted by a jury.

NSW Police Force: Bent cop Cribb should be treated no different
34-year-old police inspector Shane Cribb, who shot a man shouldn't be treated differently than any other person charged with the same offence. The Daily Telegraph this morning is calling for special consideration for the cop.

One arrested in random raids: Police
NSW Police said more than 200 officers raided homes in the largest operation ever conducted by Task Force Gain, set up to investigate gun crime in Sydney's south-west.

Random police raid terrorised residents
A police task Force randomly targeting gang warfare [and criminals green lighted by police themselves], is investigating nine murders and one disappearance, including a shooting death that sparked a dramatic random dawn raid in south-western Sydney yesterday.

Drive-by shootings: test your political IQ?
What if since the Wood Royal Commission into police corruption the drugs moved from Kings Cross to Cabramatta. Then since the the NSW Parliamentary Inquiry into Cabramatta the drugs moved to Bankstown/Greenacre. Giving police more power might just be more fuel on the fire.

NSW drug wars: family feud not responsible for shootings
New South Wales Shadow Police Minister Peter Debnam says he does not believe recent shootings in Sydney's south-west are the result of a family feud. And he's not on his own.

Police WarLords set to take over Sydney again
Police warlords are set to take over Sydney's suburbs because police are not being supervised properly.

Jailed man's conviction to be reviewed
The New South Wales Court of Criminal Appeal will today review the conviction of a man, after claims in the Police Integrity Commission (PIC) last year that police planted weapons and faked suspects' confessions.

Who is bad?
Super Rat? M5? M11? K8? N2? So I trust that some people who, with the photos and guns guessed that a jury would quickly establish a case against a profiled person whom, you just had a picture and a history of. Common knowledge? The government knew their victims would take the blame. Not just chess in court, 'moving around the pieces', but 'putting false evidence, or not enough evidence before the jury."

2,500, crooked detectives? Or a corrupt Government?
The Wood Royal Commission into police corruption. Where did the police learn their trade skills? Led by example perhaps?

How to become corruption resistant in NSW
Don't trust those who cannot prove themselves with the little amounts of trust you give them. Just because they have a letter of perceived trust doesn't mean they can be trusted.

This is not how you eat 'antisocial behaviour'
Process corruption, perjury, planting of evidence, verbals, fabricated confessions, denial of suspects rights, a solicitor to induce confessions, tampering with electronic recording equipment, framing. Generally green lighting crime, and I say Murder, including the kids who overdosed on heroin. No doubt.

Black Knight - Long way to go home
In line with the current climate of police corruption and the demise of the reform unit set up by Wood, these facts ought to have been a good reason to leave Moroney out of the package as Commissioner.

Bob down and sniff my arse
These are serious invasions of privacy and draconian laws? Where are our democratic soldiers, the lawyers and the barristers who need to take on the government in the courts? Are they plastic? Or to busy feathering their nests? Or have they been cleverly purchased by this black government. Drug test police and politicians, and have the tests independently accessed.

Come in spinner? Or Come in sinner?
"You don't have, in my view very vigilant processes. I suppose it's akin to the problem of corruption within the police," he told the ABC radio. " People say there's corruption with the police (but) do you get the police to investigate problems within their own ranks?

Deeds
I am disturbed by Governments 'actions' in relation to shuffling the police service. Clive Small seconded into Parliament like a cocky in a perch. A breach of the fundamental Separation of Powers Doctrine does not in my view allow the thought of intervening, planning, or shuffling to stack the deck of our police service. The one that suppose to be autonomous according to Lord Denning. Where the Parliamentary Secretary can ask the commissioner of police to 'report' then sack him if he is not satisfied with such report.

Truth
Who is telling the truth? Well I guess Dr. Ed. Chadbourne or Mr. Peter Ryan may have the answer to that. Dr. Chadbourne sacked by Peter Ryan and more specifically in my view because he elected deputy commissioners Dave Madden and Andrew Scipione as the best men in the service in relation to his qualifications to make a recommendation in his capacity as human resources.That is if you believe that a Dr. can be corrupted.

Honesty
What is happening between the Police Service and politics is quite extraordinary at the moment. If stand over tactics don't work tell half the truth honestly and follow the example of sheep. Another word for it is sleaze, yeah. Another word for it is workplace harassment. Another word for it is bribing a Police Officer. Another word for it is misleading Parliament.

Tele Tales
Most people I know don't buy the Daily Telegraph. Why? Because of the lies and propaganda purported by them.

Lord Denning
Interesting how a member of the Police Board Mr. Tim Priest would hold grave fears for his safety from dangerous senior police but fails to name them or have them sacked. Rather Priest resigns as if he had no powers. Could that mean what he was saying is that the Governments are also corrupt?

Corrosive
Clive Small is Bob Carr's choice for the new Police Commissioner. It could only be the case considering his, Small's special appointment into Parliament House. Small who suffers from the little person syndrome is the ideal bend over boy who gets shuffled through his corrupt actions. Rolling the legal system for him after the fact, just like his predecessor Roger the dodger Rogerson.

Black Nexus
The Separation of Powers Doctrine is nowcontaminated witharangeofcolours, now leaving us with a black shirt on a once blue bridge that crossed that thin blue line. The 'Amery and Woodham show'.

Same boat
The Premier, Bob Carr, relies on a militia. A gang of bikies and our Police Service, to show all of us he is no murderer. He should be taken to the task along with his partners in crime like Clive Small to account for those people who like my self have been maliciously assaulted and who have complained, without any service and those who cannot speak for themselves who were murdered, like Terry Falconer. Terry murdered in custody.

Good Cop
Why have our democratic institutions broken down? It's not just the criminal justice system. The Anti-Corruption Network webmaster@anti-corruption-network.org exposes the same issues. A group of white-collar workers who say they have suffered as follows:

Dangerous
I refer to the Daily Telegraph article 22 March 2002 under the heading Priest quits advisory job.

Partners in crime - history!
Roger Rogerson, the old hero, who never faced a result in the Lanfranchi, or Huckstepp murders, was let off in my opinion when the New South Wales Government rolled the legal system (deciding what evidence to give the police prosecutor) to have the jury believe the illusion they (the Government wanted to create).Similarly, Peter Ryan facing the Police Integrity Commission for questions about his involvement in the demise of the dysfunctional reform unit. Chess in the court (rolling the legal system).

Police Chronology 1994-2001
View events in the NSW Police Force since the Wood Royal Commission began in 1994. 1994 May Justice James Wood is appointed Commissioner of the Royal Commission into the NSW Police Service ('WRC').

Federal Police

AFP: The unlikely CRIMINAL
It was born of a bombing and it made its name after a far more devastating act of terrorism. But for most of the 25 years in between, little was known about the Australian Federal Police force or the work it did.

Monday, October 31, 2005

Corrupt police planting DNA evidence at crime scenes

THE Bracks Government is preparing a crackdown on police secretly taking the DNA of Victorians.

Concerns about corruption and police improperly using or releasing DNA details has prompted the Government to move to protect those whose DNA has been seized without their knowledge.

A panel of legal experts has been established to set up controls on how police take, use and store DNA samples collected covertly from genetic material left on items such as clothing and cigarettes.

"The Government is examining what measures are required to regulate the collection and use of DNA samples that are gathered covertly," Police Minister Tim Holding said.

There are no laws in Victoria to govern the secret practice. [Rubbish! What about stealing?]

Police use the samples of skin, hair, sweat and saliva to compare with DNA collected at crime scenes.

But a battle is looming between the Government and Victoria Police over the issue.

The Government is keen to ensure the safeguards are set up and enshrined in law to protect the rights of Victorians whose DNA has been secretly seized. [Stolen.]

But sources said police want to be able continue to take covert samples free from regulation or independent review. [That is stealing! And without regulation that evidence collection could be contaminated? That also makes it easier to plant DNA evidence at a crime scene.]

Documents obtained by the Freedom of Information reveal senior justice figures have warned the Government of the dangers of allowing police to conduct covert DNA sampling without safeguards or regulation.

"Covert collection of DNA material may provide opportunities for improper use of samples, potential for substitution and unauthorised disseminations," one document says.

Legal experts have raised concerns about DNA of innocent Victorians being mistakenly recorded as a criminal sample and added to the criminal DNA database. [What about those people who have had that DNA sample used as evidence against them and who are innocent of any crime but found guilty on that evidence and doing time in prison?]

Others have raised concerns about corrupt police planting DNA evidence at crime scenes.

State Ombudsman George Brouwer warned Attorney-General Rob Hulls and then police minister Andre Haermeyer last year that covert police checks were not covered under law.

Under the Crimes Act, police can obtain a court warrant to take genetic samples from prisoners, criminals and suspects with their consent or by force to add to the criminal DNA database.

Victoria Police were unable to provide details of its covert DNA sampling program.

Murder charge first for DNA data bank link, but not the same as solving the murder

As long as the the prisoners DNA wasn't planted at the crime scene. It is one thing to force prisoners to hand over their DNA and another thing to exploit it.

By Tanya Giles posted 31 October 05

Victorian cops the most corrupt in Australia

A weekly round up of news on the cops. Former Australian Crime Commission Chair says Victorian cops are the most corrupt in Australia -- so they are given extra powers -- and so Melburnians can be patrolled by the army -- and have business deals with McDonalds. Top cops in NSW cleared after investigation -- but another one charged with child slavery. Western Australian police officer leaves the force under secrecy -- and Canberra hospital nurse tells the Federal Police to bugger off.

Military lawyers await probe on DNA tampering

The Army's Criminal Investigation Command said nearly 500 forensic test results from all services dating back 10 years are under review after one of its examiners allegedly faked results. About 119 of those cases pertain to the Navy and Marine Corps.

Related:

DNA database fears
UK: IN the relatively short period of time since it was discovered, DNA fingerprinting has become one of the most powerful weapons in the armoury of the police.

The ABC for good or evil?
He had a suspect that he wanted to find guilty based on the chances of a spouse killing a spouse which were greater in anycase, at least more likely than that of a stranger.

First Grabs To Control Our DNA
A small company in Australia has been subjected to gross denials of rights after DNA database technology was stolen from it's company. This one year saga has spawned them to form a new approach to projects of importance to all people.

Worries over DNA and racial profiling
UK: Black men are four times more likely than White men to be on the national DNA database and there is growing concern about racial profiling in criminal investigations.

Lab's Errors Force Review of 150 Virginia DNA Cases
US: WASHINGTON, - A sharply critical independent audit found that Virginia's nationally recognized central crime laboratory had botched DNA tests in a leading capital murder case. The findings prompted Gov. Mark Warner to order a review of the lab's handling of testing in 150 other cases as well.

Witch-hunt targets scientists
QLD: SCIENTISTS at the John Tonge Centre are being threatened with jail in the wake of a government hunt for the source of leaks highlighting serious problems in the forensic laboratories.

Fresh swipe at DNA labs
Scientist Kris Bentley, whose departure yesterday follows that of forensic biologist Deanna Belzer after concerns about "inaccurate" DNA results and unvalidated equipment, issued a scathing resignation letter leaked to The Courier-Mail.

DNA leads 'CSI' cold-case squad to first arrest?
Frozen case? I don't really know what to say about them until they come up with their case. They say it involves DNA evidence but that's the only stuff we know.

Criminal's DNA filed under relative's name
The New South Wales Opposition is calling for an investigation into claims that police have entered DNA data for serious offenders under incorrect names.

DNA fingerprinting 'no longer foolproof'...
The genetic profiles held by police for criminal investigations are not sophisticated enough to prevent false identifications, according to the father of DNA fingerprinting.

THE BUTLER DIDN'T DO IT!
PROFESSOR BARRY BOETTCHER: Now, there should be a law enacted within Queensland so that when cases come up like this they can be brought to attention and if an appropriate authority such as a judge of your Supreme Court considers that it merits further inquiry, an inquiry be ordered.

'Rape' officer clears his name
UK: A former policeman has been cleared of rape after protesting his innocence for 15 years. Judges at the Court of Criminal Appeal in Edinburgh ruled that Brian Kelly, 47, had suffered a miscarriage of justice over crucial DNA evidence.

New unit investigates unsolved deaths?
A new police unit has been established to investigate more than 360 unsolved deaths in New South Wales, with many of the deaths dating back more than 30 years.

Prisoner's bid for review denied
Prisoner Roger Cheney has lost a Supreme Court action to have a judicial review of his 1993 convictions an 30-year jail sentence. Justice Shaw said he was concerned about the prisoner's claim that DNA evidence held by the police could prove his innocence. Although Cheney had requested the results of the DNA tests, he had been denied access to the forensic analysis.

QLD Prisoners DNA Bid THE curious case of Queensland's "cat lady" murder is set to test the state's legal authorities again, with the man convicted of the killing asking the Attorney-General to take the unprecedented step of releasing blood samples for DNA retesting.

Database clears up crimes?
NSW Police Minister John Watkins said at the launch of a Sydney conference of international forensic experts meeting to mark 100 years of fingerprinting in NSW. He said the collection of DNA from prisoners and suspects in NSW during the past two years had led to more than 5,400 matches on the forensic database.

A Question of Innocence
Katrina Bolton: The promise of DNA freeing the innocent as well as convicting the guilty has been repeated by politicians across Australia, usually while DNA laws are being expanded. The promise was made as a national DNA database, ‘Crimtrac’ was created, and it was made as NSW introduced legislation giving unprecedented powers to take DNA samples from prisoners, by force if necessary.

Mouse Trap Game? Tried Until Guilty!
Two New South Wales Labor MPs have strongly criticised the Carr Government's proposed abolition of the 800 year old double jeopardy rule, which stops people being tried a second time for the same crime. The left-wing MPs have branded the reforms as dishonest and unjust in a formal submission to the Attorney-General's department.

Weak Carr Government suspends Innocence Panel
It's a callous disregard for justice! The panel takes applications from convicted prisoners for DNA evidence to be analysed a move that may help in a future court appeal.

JUST BEAT IT! Govt lauds crime-solving technology?
The New South Wales Government says advances in crime solving technology are helping the progress of hundreds of police investigations.

DNA testing causes debate in murder case
The use of voluntary DNA testing in the investigation of a murder case in New South Wales has been applauded by victim support groups who are ill informed about the process said Justice Action's spokesperson Gregory Kable.

Abolition of double jeopardy law a political stunt: NSW Opp
Why draconian laws? What about the re-trial by media that goes along with it? Twice shy?

ARE YOU INNOCENT?
The NSW government has finally appointed somebody (Justice John Nader) to head up its Innocence Panel and has produced leaflets and forms for people convicted of serious crimes (eg murder) to apply for DNA testing if they believe it may help prove their innocence. You can get the info by phoning 1300 881 717 or writing to the panel at GPO Box 45 Sydney NSW 2001.

Is the Westminster System flawed?
Most people would say Lady Di got the boot and NSW has so much trouble getting the Innocence Panel moving. I said hey, what's going on!

Prisoners can prove innocence for $20
Les Kennedy Daily Telegraph reported today that" Prisoners who believe that DNA will prove they were wrongly convicted will have the chance to prove their innocence for a mere $20 administration fee. The move comes 20 months after NSW inmates were asked to provide DNA for comparison with a databank of DNA from unsolved crime scenes for possible convictions.

DNA yours or mine?
Now they have isolated two genes that they say tells you if you're more likely to be depressed. What does that mean? It could mean that you should stay in jail because you are more likely than not to continue your offending behaviour according to a Department of Corrective Services Forensic Psychiatrist.

DNA = Do Not Assume - DNA Controversies!
The national DNA database of all known offenders proposed by Prime Minister Tony Blair could mean that innocent people will be accused of crimes they did not commit.

DNA Evidence of Bipartisanship
Last week the U.S. Congress passed the Justice for All Act, which includes provisions of the Innocence Protection Act. As of this posting, the legislation has not yet been signed by President Bush. Attached is an analysis of the legislation prepared by the Justice Project.

DNA - A Shadow of Doubt
One case points to misinterpretation of evidence that helped put a man behind bars. The other shows just how easy it is to plant falsely incriminating DNA evidence. As our forensic techniques become ever more sensitive, so the possibility of abuse continues to grow.

Murder charge first for DNA data bank link, but not the same as solving the murder As long as the the prisoners DNA wasn't planted at the crime scene. It is one thing to force prisoners to hand over their DNA and another thing to exploit it.

Monday, March 14, 2005

Craig Annesley: Miscarriage of Justice

The reason for this article is because a Secretary at the Council for Civil Liberties stated to me that they haven't got the funding to help me with a false imprisonment case which happened February 97 - and in February 2005, it will be 7 years after the incident which will mean I will be too late to bring a civil case to court?

I will try to keep this story simple though I acknowledge and warn you it gets a little complex.

The Council for Civil Liberties (Secretary) told me to attempt to get help from Justice Action.

This is what happened:

I had been sentenced to two years weekend- detention for 'stealing matters', which ended up being cancelled, which meant I had to do the order - as full time custody.

May 16th 1996, I was then released from prison. I got a job and remained out of trouble.

Then 8.5 months after my release I had a confrontation with Mr Barry O'keefe whom said that I was to remove my car from a Car Park immediately. This was the 2nd February 1997.

My car had no battery, so in order to do what he told me, I had to push my car. I began pushing and he stormed off to get security and returned with about 5 police officers.

They asked me my name, then stated to me that there is 3 x 1st instant warrants for my arrest, being 2 x fail to answer call muster (prison roll-up call) and 1 x fail to pay Victims Compensation Levy (VCL) and my own investigation found this was issued by a Court, while I was in prison paying VCL?

Therefore these warrants were false!

The police then said to me (Feb-87), "We have to take you to jail for these warrants so we may as well charge you for 'drive whilst disqualified'."

I was also charged for stealing (a number plate) and goods in custody (my lap top computer which I bought from a shop).

I was refused bail initially because I was in custody for the false warrants?

After serving the 10-12 days for the warrants, I was taken to court at Redfern and granted bail with the following conditions:

* Myself be willing to forfeit without security the amount of $500.00.

* That a suitable person also be willing to forfeit without security an amount of $1,000.00.

My Legal Aid solicitor and the magistrate both said that no money or proof of money is needed - just a signature.

My girlfriend tried at the Police Station and they wanted proof that she had $1,000.00 available to forfeit?

I was taken to Goulburn Correctional Centre and locked in a cell for 3-4 days with no water, sunshine or access to a telephone?

Each day the Department of Corrective Services (DCS) would show me a piece of paper stating I had to sign it.

The form said: " I do not hold the Department of Corrective Services responsible for anything that may or may not happen in the main part of Goulburn Remand Centre.

I refused to sign it and remained in the cell for 3-4 days. I was fed.

Eventually my girlfriend showed them $1,000 dollars cash and I was released on bail conditions for self and suitable person - I had no $500.00 to show or prove.

A week later at Redfern Court, Legal Aid would not represent me because I pleaded not guilty?

So I represented myself and was found guilty anyway and again was given 6 months - (weekend detention).

On the police fact sheet little did I know at the time. They had described me in the following way.

"Craig Annesley is an unemployed heroin addict and a cancelled driver due to a neurological condition". - I never held a licence?

This was in April 1997, when I had not used heroin since 1993, and had been working up to 6 days per week - as a furniture removalist since my release in may 1996? - Defamation to put it lightly.

On the day of my first weekend detention I had put myself into Balmain Casualty Department as I had extremely red and sore eyes.

I had asked the nurse/doctor to please write me a letter for the DCS to explain why my eyes were red and sore.

Wrong diagnosis (severe conjunctivitis) yet a letter to explain.

I wasn't going to risk not attending PDC (weekend detention) so I was glad to have a letter from the hospital to at least explain my eyes.

On my attendance the officer told me to "piss off, you have one AWOL away without leave." He told me that my eyes aren't usually that red. I tried to tell him about the letter in my bag, but I was told to go away. I then no longer even tried to attend - so the Order was cancelled and I did it as full time prison.

While doing the Order full-time, I was raped in gaol in March 1998, 2.5 weeks later I was taken to a Rape Clinic at Westmead. The Police attended and were to meet me 2 days after to take my statement. This second meeting never happened. I lodged a victim's compensation claim over this incident only to have it refused, as I was a convicted inmate at the time of the alleged offence? That is discrimination as far as I'm concerned.

All this is also un-just and unfair and I am very frustrated about what has happened to me!

I will write a quick rundown of answers from various government departments so far.

The ICAC investigated after some accusations I made against the NSW Police. They found that the police didn't issue the 3 fake warrants, which I was arrested and put in prison for.

The Ombudsman office gave me no answer or advice.


The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission wrote to me and said sorry they only deal with Federal matters and I am a state prisoner not a federal prisoner.

The NSW Law Society answered and stated. "Sorry Mr Annesley but the Pro-Bono scheme of the Law Society does not deal with Professional Negligence cases and in my case, there does seem to be 'some degree' of professional negligence.

The Innocence Project had my case but I've heard nothing...


In February 2005, it will be 7 years and I'm told too late to do anything?

God knows I've tried and tried and tried to get help with all this - noone is listening.

Justice Action may or may not be interested. The NSW Council for Civil Liberties may help if I can get past the (Secretaries), if you know what I mean.

Any assistance or advice you can give me would be sincerely appreciated.

Ed: I am not a lawyer so I cannot give you legal advice.

Your concerns about limitation periods in relation to and action have a couple of conditions that I am aware of.

It is my undersanding that the time period to sue starts when one realises they have an action. And the the time period starts when one is in a position to be able to take an action.

That's if you're writing in relation to the Statute of Limitations. So the period starts actually when you're in a position to sue. Check with your lawyer!

I will post your article for two reasons; one is that I hope you can get some help from a qualified lawyer, who has some time to spare?

The second is to warn all the other citizens including the politicians in this country of the dangers of the NSW Police Force and the NSW Department of Corrective Services when they get it so terribly wrong!


By JusticeACTION 14 March 2005

Related:

Punishment By Imprisonment Is A Medieval Concept [258]


Although this is the 21st century, the societies of the Level 3 Civilization have not yet abandoned the medieval notion of prisons being places of punishment. Today's institutions of incarceration are called 'Correctional Centres' and other sanitised terms, but they remain vehicles for revenge and punishment exacted by courts under the Rule of Law.

Author's Note:
Some readers might find the following content offensive, since it deals specifically with sexual acts. If you wish to skip this section STOP HERE .



This space is intentionally blank.



- Fight or Fuck -

The following accounts of prison rape are taken from various human rights sites on the WWW that deal with this abuse, which seems to be in epidemic proportions in the US, Australia, and many other countries.

* "I had no choice but to submit to being inmate B's prison wife. Out of fear for my life. I submitted to sucking his dick, being fucked in my ass, and performing other duties as a woman, such as making his bed. In all reality, I was his slave, as the officials of the Arkansas Department of Corrections under the 'color of law' did absolutely nothing."
- M.P., Arkansas Pro Se federal civil rights complaint filed 8/2/96.

* "... I probably have AIDS now, I have great difficulty raising food to my mouth from shaking after nightmares or thinking too hard on all this ... I've laid down without physical fight to be sodomised. To prevent so much damage in struggles ripping and tearing. Though in not fighting, it caused my heart and spirit to be raped as well. Something I don't know if I'll ever forgive myself for." - A.H., Indiana, 8/30/96.

* "I was raped in prison from February 1991 through November 1991. From that it left me HIV positive." - T.B., Texas, 9/3/96.

* "The rapes seem to be for two main reasons. 1. They hurt, someone must pay. 2. Being deprived of consensual sex, and self-centred, any hole will do. Power, control, revenge, seem to top the 'reasons' for rape. The person assaulted is either seen as weaker, or gang banged if seen as a stuck up kind of person. You know, refuses to swear, actually admits he is guilty, is seeking help etc. ..." - D.A., Nebraska, 9/6/96

* "I can tell you that whenever a mother calls me whose son has been sentenced to prison, the first question she inevitably asks is, 'What can I tell him so he can keep himself safe?" said Donna Hamm, of the advocacy group Middle Ground Prison Reform. For the very weak, or the very young, or for homosexuals or females, coerced sexual activity is a very real concern, she said. - Arizona Daily Star, January 25, 2004.The ACLU lawsuit details the story.

* "For eighteen months ... Mr Johnson was subjected to a system of gang-run sexual slavery. ... Gang members routinely bought and sold Mr Johnson as chattel, raped and degraded him on a virtually daily basis, and threatened him with death if he resisted. ... (Prison officials) were well aware of his plight, but ... made clear by words and deeds that they took sadistic pleasure in his victimisation. They also repeatedly expressed contempt for non-aggressive gay men, and made it explicit that it was their practice to refuse to protect such inmates from sexual assault, at least until such inmates were savagely beaten or 'guffed."

"We don't protect punks on this farm" Johnson says he was told. "Fight or fuck."

Raped first by a member of the Gangster Disciples gang, the first of seven gangs that would assert their ownership of him at Alfred. Johnson was assaulted again and again - in cells, stairwells, and showers - sometimes by as many as eight convicts at once. Gang members sold Johnson among themselves for $5 and $10 which convicts paid for with commissary items, at one point fighting among themselves over who owned him. - Austin American-Statesman, January 11, 2004.

* Gardesani's willingness to gather evidence on Anderson sparked an investigation by the Colorado Department of Corrections into numerous allegations of sexual misconduct by male staff at the Pueblo women's prison. ... A native of Brazil who speaks four languages but is less than fluent in English, she admits she was reluctant to come forward at first. She was too shocked she says - and then too afraid of what the officer could do to her.

"Sergeant Anderson was such a cop - go by the book and everything," she says. "People were kind of scared of him because he was mean with inmates. He write you up for anything. I was real surprised it happened because he was the last person I expect it from."

According to Gardesani, she was reading in her cell one day when Anderson came in and "started running his hands over me. I couldn't believe what was going on." He then left as abruptly as he arrived, she says.

On three subsequent visits over the next few weeks, Gardesani says, Anderson took her to the one area of the room not visible from the cell door, bent her over a chair, and had intercourse with her. "I didn't say a word" she says, "I was thinking, If I scream he's going to tell them I'm crazy and they're going to put me in the hole, put me in special needs, like happen with other inmates. So I let him do it. I was almost paralysed. He didn't say too much. He just pulled me to the chair. Then he had sex with me without no protection at all."

... Throughout it all Gardesani says, she believed any complaint she might make would lead to retaliation. "He told me several times, 'I can't lose my job, so you don't say nothing." she says. "But he has the power, right? He can tell things that I done, and I didn't do it, you know what I mean?" - Westword, May 6, 2004.

That was the US, now for Australia.


* There is something seriously wrong when the NSW prisons are too dangerous even for those convicted of violent crime. Yet that is how the prison system appears to no less a figure than the District Court's acting Judge Donald Stewart (former chairman of the National Crime Authority, former royal commissioner and former Supreme Court judge). Judge Stewart has decided not to send a young carjacker to jail to await sentencing because "what might and probably will face this young man ... does not bear speaking about." And so Ali El Etri will remain on bail after pleading guilty to charges including aggravated carjacking which carries a penalty of up to 14 years in jail. El Etri and a 30-year-old accomplice had lain in wait for a Sydney solicitor then stolen her Porsche Boxter at gunpoint.

The community may well feel that those who terrorise others in this fashion should be off the streets. However, Judge Stewart was clearly apprehensive about what might befall a good-looking 20-year-old in a NSW jail. Judge Stewart said he wanted to dispel "any romantic ideas people have about jail. It is not a cushy number", and noted there had been a weekend newspaper report on rape in prisons.

His Honour may well have been referring to the Good Weekend cover story which painted a horrifying picture of jails where the rape of prisoners by other prisoners had become routine. A NSW magistrate, David Heilpern, told the magazine that up to 25 percent of young men in NSW jails had been raped, some every day. Other experts interviewed by the Good Weekend thought Mr Heilpern's figure was conservative. Yet those who were sexually assaulted are reluctant to complain to authorities for fear of retribution from other prisoners. And all this in a state which jails more than 15,000 people a year - almost twice the per capita rate of Victoria, for example.

"People are not sent to jail to be punished, they are sent to jail as punishment," Judge Stewart said on Monday when continuing El Etri's bail. It is not clear what the Judge may do when the time comes to sentence El Etri on December 13. Meanwhile, he has made a valid point. While governments may introduce tough laws against crime, respect for the law also means that they must accept full responsibility to protect criminals from punishment beyond what the law prescribes.

While Judge Stewart is to be commended for taking his lonely stand against the inhuman conditions in NSW jails and the failure of Correctional Services officials to provide full protection for prisoners, he clearly states the principle that "People are .... sent to jail as punishment". This is the flaw in present-day justice systems, prisons are still intended to punish offenders, just as they were in the Dark Ages. Nothing has changed.

Given that this is the case, it is misleading and erroneous to label prisons as 'Correctional Centres'. These facilities are not designed or operated to 'correct' or rehabilitate the unfortunates who are incarcerated within them. The aim is to punish people for their perceived sins.

Colonial Australia was founded as a penal colony, to get felons who were crammed into prison hulks on the Thames out of the sight of genteel Londoners. Those unfortunates who were transported to Australia, often for petty thefts, were worked hard and treated with extreme brutality. Today, federal and state governments, and the majority of the judiciary who administer the rule of law in Australia, are inclined to perpetuate this principle, while giving only lip service to notions of reform and rehabilitation in the public rhetoric of the justice system.

As things stand, police who arrest offenders such as El Etri, lawyers who prosecute them, and judges or magistrates who sentence them are knowingly sending these people into situations in which they have every chance of being routinely subjected to sexual abuse and physical assault. No valid defence can be afforded by claiming that the end responsibility for the protection of prison inmates lies with Correctional Services authorities.

The Nuremberg trials of 1945-6 rejected similar arguments from those who were part of the chain that arrested, transported and finally exterminated hordes of innocent people whom the Nazis disapproved of.

At Nuremberg it was not accepted that the soldiers and guards were 'only following orders'. If they had forced people into cattle trucks bound for Auschwitz, Belsen, Dachau or similar destinations, the officials, police and military were judged to have been as guilty of crimes against humanity as those who planned and directed the holocaust.

A very strong argument can be made that the abuses that are being allowed to happen in jails in Australia, the US, and other places, are nothing less than crimes against humanity - a justice holocaust. Thus, when a judge sentences an offender to prison the true punishment is far greater than a number of years of loss of liberty. It is repeated rape and, in all probability, a lingering death from AIDS.

Most of the people in NSW jails don't even need to be confined for the safety of the general society. They are in prison for drug use offences, minor breaches such as not paying traffic fines, or for defrauding the social security system of quite small amounts of money. Certainly, there are violent rapists and armed robbers who do need to be confined until such time as they can be rehabilitated, if that is possible. However, there is absolutely no justification for allowing even these people to be subjected to additional, unofficial, punishments of the most vile and brutal kind.

Without wishing to be crude about it, the justice system sucks. And the faults trace back to medieval notions of revenge and punishment that have no place in a truly just society. Again, without wishing to labour the comparison, it is a fact that tribal peoples dwelt in Australia for tens of thousands of years without constructing any jails or severely punishing or abusing wrongdoers. The emphasis in many tribal systems of justice is on rectification of the harm done to victims, rather than torturing the perpetrators of the crimes.

The appalling failures in the systems of justice and imprisonment within the old order cry out to be discussed Us-2-Us. Wide awareness and indignation in the public arena will be significant factors in decisions relating to secession and the establishment of a Level 4 Civilization that is free of such flaws.

Related Links:

Tough line on crime fills jails
The tough law-and-order policies of governments around the nation are behind an explosion in the prison population by almost 80 per cent in the past two decades.

LEGAL VISITS AT PARKLEA PRISON
I am a prisoner in NSW and I am currently held in Parklea Prison. I am concerned about what is going on in NSW prisons and this is my story.

Parklea Prison: No calls for six days
The last calls that were made out of Parklea Correctional Complex by my partner, an inmate in remand at Parklea, was on Wednesday 2 February. The phone lines for the inmates have been out of service to this date.

Prison visits in crisis in NSW
The reason I am writing today is to address a difficult situation that my husband and my family are going through. My husband is currently serving a sentence at Lithgow Correctional Centre in NSW.

Prison boom will prove a social bust
Hardened criminals are not filling NSW's prisons - the mentally ill and socially disadvantaged are, writes Eileen Baldry.

The prison system requires assiduous oversight
As NSW Attorney General Bob Debus noted in 1996: "The kinds of complaints which occur in the system may seem trivial to outsiders but in the superheated world of the prison, such issues can produce explosive results."

Crime and Punishment
Mark Findlay argues that the present psychological approach to prison programs is increasing the likelihood of re-offending and the threat to community safety.

Justice Denied In NSW Corrective Services
There used to be a (VJ) or Visiting Justice who would go into the prison and judge any claim or accusation that was made by any prisoner or prison guard. If it were found that a prisoner had offended then punishment was metered out.

Prison guards test positive for drugs
NSW prison visitors banned from using the toilet The visit is only for about one hour and any thing less than that is an insult. If it's proved that a visitor has broken the rules the punishment should apply to them. But collective punishment on all visitors should not be made general when others haven't broken the rules especially if it restricts all visitors from normal human needs like using a toilet.

NSW prison visitors banned from using the toilet
The New South Wales Government has introduced several initiatives to stop contraband getting into prisons they said last Friday. But under the guise of "stricter rules" the department had also introduced banning all visitors including children from using the toilet unless they terminate their visit at any NSW prison after using the toilet.

Watchdogs slaughtered in NSW
On Tuesday the Carr Government reduced transparency and accountability yet again and New South Wales is in danger of becoming entrenched with cronyism and intimidations with the Carr Labor Government that continues to slaughter the watchdogs.

Tuesday, October 19, 2004

4 named over APS death - Court hears of corruption

Australian Protective Service whistleblower Gary Lee-Rogers may have died at the hands of four people named in court yesterday by a former NSW police detective who backed his claims of corruption in the service.

In evidence yesterday at a coronial inquest into Mr Lee-Rogers' death at Queanbeyan in 2002, retired detective senior constable Deborah Lee Locke identified four individuals, whose names cannot be published and were not read aloud under court order by coroner Jacqueline Milledge.

Ms Locke also revealed evidence, compiled from internal APS documents, which substantiated Mr Lee-Rogers' whistleblower claims of systemic mismanagement within the APS including the misuse of company credit cards by employees.  

She accused the APS of corruption and collusion, tendering to the court the documents, including one from March 2000, which revealed that more than 60 firearms, 30 handcuffs and bomb-suit equipment had mysteriously vanished from the organisation. The audit report showed that 47 revolvers were gone, as well as two rifles, six shotguns, 18 batons, computers and mobile phones.

The missing weapons, as well as claims of mismanagement and workplace harassment, were among allegations Mr Lee- Rogers, a senior officer, was planning to use to expose what he called the "web of lies, corruption and collusion" that existed within his workplace.

Ms Locke said she believed Mr Lee- Rogers had died after months of bullying to shut him up by members of an "old boys club" that existed within the APS and possibly the Australian Federal Police. She did not believe his death was murder but rather manslaughter by several individuals who wanted to "send him a message".

Ms Locke, a 12-year NSW Police Force veteran who worked as a detective with the Kings Cross undercover drug squad and the Fraud section, said that from the medical evidence available she believed he was either punched in the face or smothered with a pillow.

Days before his death, Mr Lee-Rogers made a triple-0 call, claiming he had been bashed by a federal police officer.

His landlady, one of the last people to see him alive, said he appeared to have been roughed up and may have had bruising on his face.

The claim that a member of the AFP had bashed Mr Lee-Rogers has not been substantiated.

A post mortem examination did not reveal a cause of death, although initial investigations by police from Queanbeyan determined that it may have been from natural causes.

[Investigations by police?]

There was also speculation that because he had been depressed, his death may have been the result of suicide.

[Just plain rubbish and propaganda to white wash the facts.]

Mr Lee-Rogers' body was found slumped on the bed of his Queanbeyan flat on October 1, 2002, only weeks before he was due to face court on fraud charges which were levelled against him after his initial complaints to management about problems within the APS, the nation's guard service.

"Gary Lee-Rogers was a genuine whistleblower and he was excited about going to court to reveal what he knew," Ms Locke said. "He may have been depressed, but I don't believe he was suicidal."

In the weeks prior to his death, he had sent e-mails and made desperate telephone calls to fellow members of Whistleblowers Australia, claiming that he had been threatened. 

In one message he said that a gun had been shoved in his mouth and that former colleagues were driving past his house pointing fingers at him like pistols and motioning as with knives across their throats in a bid to rattle him.

"I am in fear of my life and I know I will die 'accidentally' or 'by my own hand' in the next few months," he wrote in one of his e-mails. "I am in a world of fear and pain."


By Renee Cutrupi 19 October 04

Related:

AFP: The unlikely CRIMINAL
It was born of a bombing and it made its name after a far more devastating act of terrorism. But for most of the 25 years in between, little was known about the Australian Federal Police force or the work it did.

Every Breath You Take?
Professor McMillan says while state and federal police cooperate in national security, there is less certainty about whether the state or commonwealth ombudsman should handle complaints about law enforcement.

The words out! The government is the problem...
The Federal Government says it wants to establish an independent national anti-corruption body to improve accountability in organisations like the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Crime Commission because they're corrupt.

Standing up for liberties
When a federal Labor Opposition indicates it is prepared to agree to future government legislation even before its detailed content is known, alarm bells should ring.

ASIO: No responsibility!
It has been revealed two complaints against Australia's intelligence agency ASIO have been upheld in the last financial year.

Monday, October 11, 2004

Policeman draws blank on fake raids

A suspended Sydney policeman has told an inquiry that he has "little recollection" of the details of fake police raids he set up.

Sergeant Christopher John Laycock has returned to the witness box.

He told the Police Integrity Commission (PIC) that he can not remember any details about a raid at Glebe in November 2001.

A witness has testified that the 33-year-old was involved in the bust and that money and gold bullion was stolen.

The officer has admitted that he organised a robbery at Burwood during which more than $20,000 was stolen.

The suspended policeman told the Commission he cannot recall being offered money, by a man with links to the Russian Mafia, in exchange for helping one of the man's friends who had been been charged with serious criminal offences.

By Starsky and Hutch 11 October 04

Related:

NSW police prosecutor charged with child porn possession
A New South Wales police prosecutor has been charged with the possession of child pornography. Police spokesman Sergeant Dave Rose says that in mid-August officers were called to an Internet cafe in the Sydney central business district after a man was alleged to have downloaded child pornography.

Rockspiders: Police, Teachers, Childcare Owners, and Uncle Pervy!
Police have indicated there will be hundreds more arrests as part of Australia's largest ever crackdown on child pornography even though it is some of the police themselves? Authorities have so far charged more than 190 people with a total of 2000 offences and seized more than two million pornographic images.

Police, teachers charged in child porn bust
One-hundred-and-fifty people, including police officers and teachers, have been arrested in what the Federal Police (AFP) describe as Australia's biggest Internet child pornography bust.

Whitewash over Hickey's death
The New South Wales coroner has cleared police of any responsibility for the death of Aboriginal teenager Thomas 'TJ' Hickey. State coroner John Abernethy has dismissed claims that police were chasing or pursuing TJ Hickey when he crashed his bike and became impaled on a fence.

Redfern police need education not weapons
NSW police want new offensive equipment including long-range capsicum spray guns and modified armoured vehicles capable of spraying tear gas following a damning report on the Redfern riots in Sydney earlier this year.

Fremantle police at centre of missing cannabis claims
Western Australian Police Minister Michelle Roberts says cleaning up the Fremantle Police Station will be a big test for new Commissioner Karl O'Callaghan.

Micklebergs sue senior police officer for defamation
The Mickelberg brothers are suing a senior policeman over comments he made after their convictions for the Perth Mint swindle were quashed.

Mickelbergs win 20-year fight to clear their names
A legal battle spanning more than two decades ended today when two brothers accused of stealing more than $650,000 in gold bullion from the Perth Mint had their convictions quashed.

The filthy NSW Police Integrity Commission!
Ten years after a royal commission exposed the corruption extending to the heart of the NSW Police there has been no change in police culture, and any change would be difficult to bring about because the government is the problem.

Funding undermining witness protection: Vic police?
Hodson's security camera almost certainly recorded the approach of their killer or killers, but homicide detectives could not find the camera's VHS tape. Hodson's home security system had been reviewed by the Ethical Standards Department's technical support unit.

Anti-crime watchdog needed in Victoria: Opposition
Victorian Opposition leader Robert Doyle says the latest claims of police corruption need to be investigated by an independent crime and anti-corruption commission.

Victorians want corruption commission, poll finds
Warning: This poll does not reflect Victorians who have been directly affected by police corruption and therefore it cannot be said that Victorians believe corruption in Victoria is "limited to a few bad apples". The same as the propaganda on Four Corners [Walls?] The only bad apples handpicked and dropped on Chris Masters desk. Corruption Inc...

The words out! The government is the problem
The Federal Government says it wants to establish an independent national anti-corruption body to improve accountability in organisations like the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Crime Commission because they're corrupt. The body would have royal commission powers and be permitted to intercept phone calls.

Gangland target? Or police decoy? Refuses protection
Victorian Assistant Commissioner of Crime Simon Overland says the man who was the target of an alleged planned gangland killing has refused police protection.

Vic police chief moves to sack officers
The Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police, Christine Nixon, has moved to dismiss two police officers as part of a crackdown on corruption and says up to 20 more dismissals could follow.

Vic prosecutors to drop corruption case
The Office of Public Prosecutions in Victoria will drop drug-related charges against a suspended police officer tomorrow after an informer due to testify in the case was murdered last month.

Vic flop cop warns there's more corruption
Victorian Police Chief Commissioner, Christine Nixon, says Victorians should brace themselves for more evidence of police corruption.

Vic police corruption report tabled in Parliament
The Victorian Ombudsman's report on the Ceja Taskforce and drug related corruption in Victoria police has been tabled in State Parliament.

GIVE A DOG A BONE?
When the Ombudsman investigates police in most States and Territories of Australia they set about asking the police to investigate themselves to see if there is any validity to a complaint.

Victorian Ombudsman's power boosted
The Victorian Government has reacted strongly to continuing allegations of police corruption, with the Premier announcing a big boost to the State Ombudsman's power and resources.

Police silent on witness protection breach claim
Victorian police have been forced to defended the Witness Protection Program again, after an alleged incident involving a police informer.

Former Vic drug squad head working for NSW
It has been revealed that the former head of the disgraced Victorian drug squad is now a senior investigator at the New South Wales Police Integrity Commission (PIC).

Penalty given to police officer in corruption case under fire
The Victorian Opposition has criticised the penalty handed down to a Victorian police officer who tried to find the home address of an officer investigating corruption.

Bracks crime team 'not up to job'
Steve Bracks was "fiddling while Melbourne burns", a respected senior crimefighter said yesterday, as the state Ombudsman was attacked for being ill-equipped to tackle entrenched police corruption.

Vic corruption fighter tells of intimidation
A senior Victorian police corruption investigator says fellow officers have intimidated and threatened him.

Vic police corruption 'worst ever', former judge says
A former Federal Court judge last night described corruption in the Victoria police force as the worst ever.

Bullet threat won't stop corruption probe, police say
The Victorian police force says threats against internal investigators will not stop it from weeding out corrupt police and bringing them to justice.

Police corruption linked to underworld slayings
The chairman of Victoria's Ceja police internal corruption task force has admitted there is a link between police corruption and Melbourne's gangland killings.

Redfern drug dealers: Who is Mr Big?
A senior Redfern police officer says a flourishing illegal drug trade is the main cause of problems in Redfern's Aboriginal community, known as The Block. But just like Kings Cross it doesn't get cleaned up and the Mr Big's are living like pigs. Ha ha. That's right someone supplies and someone accumulates large sums of money and someone has targeted Redfern and allows it to flourish there.

Victoria's top cop needs a watchdog?
The Bracks Government is expected to announce new powers of investigation for the Victorian Ombudsman today. So what are they trying to say? The dog never had the power?

Bulldogs simply not the best!
SIMPLY NOT THE BEST AND DEFINITELY NOT BETTER THAN ANYONE, ANYONE I'VE MET.

Why the Bulldogs rape case failed?
AFTER two months of turmoil, the rape case against six Bulldogs rugby league players has collapsed, with police saying there was insufficient evidence to press charges. IT is the moment any investigator dreads. [Just plain rubbish and a cover-up.]

NSW Police seizing assets to bolster budgets?
Seized assets to bolster police budgets is going to place crime solving into the corporate arena. Why should they go after a common criminal who is poor? Instead they'll be searching for assets and then solving crime. After all, police budgets will depend on it.

Court accuses police of planting evidence
A magistrate in the south-western New South Wales city of Wagga Wagga says police there nearly beat a man to death, fabricated evidence about him, and later lied in court about the incident.

NSW ex-Inspector Gadget claims credibility again
Just how credible is this former cop? Small's claim on Four Corners [Walls, a government propaganda machine], tonight, [that], the Government warned about Redfern problems before the riot. Like he's Mr squeaky-clean? Bad news more like it, Small was the say anything, do anything, ex-cop from hell for Bob Carr and his cronies.

Gang-rape, police, disparity and the law..
The young woman and her friend have told police they met the players in Coffs Harbour on the evening after the Bulldogs played a trial match there and went back to the team's hotel with them.

Cops Leak: Bulldogs accused of rape at Coffs Harbour
Police are warning media outlets they may face criminal charges if they release confidential information about investigations. The call comes after the details of an assault on a woman at Coffs Harbour were read on a commercial radio station in Sydney yesterday morning.

Capsicum spray killed Brisbane man
Remember one "Flick" and they're gone. A 26-year-old man has died in Brisbane after a scuffle with police in the inner-city suburb of Highgate Hill. Police say they went to a unit complex just after midnight to speak to the man. Inspector Ian Robinson says police used capsicum spray and the man collapsed and died.

Clive Small, NSW Inspector Gadget
NSW Police has revived controversial plans for a specialist discriminative squad to tackle the wave of violent crime that has plagued Sydney's south-west for more than a decade.

Man wrongly imprisoned awarded $1m
A Sydney man who was acquitted of murder has won more than $1 million in damages for wrongful arrest and imprisonment. The New South Wales Supreme Court has agreed with Garry Raymond Nye's said that the charge was maliciously laid. Acting on a tip-off, [?], police arrested and charged the 51-year-old with the shooting murder of Roy Thurgar at Randwick in Sydney's east in 1991. He spent 16 months in custody before he was acquitted by a jury.

NSW Police Force: Bent cop Cribb should be treated no different
34-year-old police inspector Shane Cribb, who shot a man shouldn't be treated differently than any other person charged with the same offence. The Daily Telegraph this morning is calling for special consideration for the cop.

One arrested in random raids: Police
NSW Police said more than 200 officers raided homes in the largest operation ever conducted by Task Force Gain, set up to investigate gun crime in Sydney's south-west.

Random police raid terrorised residents
A police task Force randomly targeting gang warfare [and criminals green lighted by police themselves], is investigating nine murders and one disappearance, including a shooting death that sparked a dramatic random dawn raid in south-western Sydney yesterday.

Drive-by shootings: test your political IQ?
What if since the Wood Royal Commission into police corruption the drugs moved from Kings Cross to Cabramatta. Then since the the NSW Parliamentary Inquiry into Cabramatta the drugs moved to Bankstown/Greenacre. Giving police more power might just be more fuel on the fire.

NSW drug wars: family feud not responsible for shootings
New South Wales Shadow Police Minister Peter Debnam says he does not believe recent shootings in Sydney's south-west are the result of a family feud. And he's not on his own.

Police WarLords set to take over Sydney again
Police warlords are set to take over Sydney's suburbs because police are not being supervised properly.

Jailed man's conviction to be reviewed
The New South Wales Court of Criminal Appeal will today review the conviction of a man, after claims in the Police Integrity Commission (PIC) last year that police planted weapons and faked suspects' confessions.

Who is bad?
Super Rat? M5? M11? K8? N2? So I trust that some people who, with the photos and guns guessed that a jury would quickly establish a case against a profiled person whom, you just had a picture and a history of. Common knowledge? The government knew their victims would take the blame. Not just chess in court, 'moving around the pieces', but 'putting false evidence, or not enough evidence before the jury."

2,500, crooked detectives? Or a corrupt Government?
The Wood Royal Commission into police corruption. Where did the police learn their trade skills? Led by example perhaps?

How to become corruption resistant in NSW
Don't trust those who cannot prove themselves with the little amounts of trust you give them. Just because they have a letter of perceived trust doesn't mean they can be trusted.

This is not how you eat 'antisocial behaviour'
Process corruption, perjury, planting of evidence, verbals, fabricated confessions, denial of suspects rights, a solicitor to induce confessions, tampering with electronic recording equipment, framing. Generally green lighting crime, and I say Murder, including the kids who overdosed on heroin. No doubt.

Black Knight - Long way to go home
In line with the current climate of police corruption and the demise of the reform unit set up by Wood, these facts ought to have been a good reason to leave Moroney out of the package as Commissioner.

Bob down and sniff my arse
These are serious invasions of privacy and draconian laws? Where are our democratic soldiers, the lawyers and the barristers who need to take on the government in the courts? Are they plastic? Or to busy feathering their nests? Or have they been cleverly purchased by this black government. Drug test police and politicians, and have the tests independently accessed.

Come in spinner? Or Come in sinner?
"You don't have, in my view very vigilant processes. I suppose it's akin to the problem of corruption within the police," he told the ABC radio. " People say there's corruption with the police (but) do you get the police to investigate problems within their own ranks?

Deeds
I am disturbed by Governments 'actions' in relation to shuffling the police service. Clive Small seconded into Parliament like a cocky in a perch. A breach of the fundamental Separation of Powers Doctrine does not in my view allow the thought of intervening, planning, or shuffling to stack the deck of our police service. The one that suppose to be autonomous according to Lord Denning. Where the Parliamentary Secretary can ask the commissioner of police to 'report' then sack him if he is not satisfied with such report.

Truth
Who is telling the truth? Well I guess Dr. Ed. Chadbourne or Mr. Peter Ryan may have the answer to that. Dr. Chadbourne sacked by Peter Ryan and more specifically in my view because he elected deputy commissioners Dave Madden and Andrew Scipione as the best men in the service in relation to his qualifications to make a recommendation in his capacity as human resources.That is if you believe that a Dr. can be corrupted.

Honesty
What is happening between the Police Service and politics is quite extraordinary at the moment. If stand over tactics don't work tell half the truth honestly and follow the example of sheep. Another word for it is sleaze, yeah. Another word for it is workplace harassment. Another word for it is bribing a Police Officer. Another word for it is misleading Parliament.

Tele Tales
Most people I know don't buy the Daily Telegraph. Why? Because of the lies and propaganda purported by them.

Lord Denning
Interesting how a member of the Police Board Mr. Tim Priest would hold grave fears for his safety from dangerous senior police but fails to name them or have them sacked. Rather Priest resigns as if he had no powers. Could that mean what he was saying is that the Governments are also corrupt?

Corrosive
Clive Small is Bob Carr's choice for the new Police Commissioner. It could only be the case considering his, Small's special appointment into Parliament House. Small who suffers from the little person syndrome is the ideal bend over boy who gets shuffled through his corrupt actions. Rolling the legal system for him after the fact, just like his predecessor Roger the dodger Rogerson.

Black Nexus
The Separation of Powers Doctrine is nowcontaminated witharangeofcolours, now leaving us with a black shirt on a once blue bridge that crossed that thin blue line. The 'Amery and Woodham show'.

Same boat
The Premier, Bob Carr, relies on a militia. A gang of bikies and our Police Service, to show all of us he is no murderer. He should be taken to the task along with his partners in crime like Clive Small to account for those people who like my self have been maliciously assaulted and who have complained, without any service and those who cannot speak for themselves who were murdered, like Terry Falconer. Terry murdered in custody.

Good Cop
Why have our democratic institutions broken down? It's not just the criminal justice system. The Anti-Corruption Network webmaster@anti-corruption-network.org exposes the same issues. A group of white-collar workers who say they have suffered as follows:

Dangerous
I refer to the Daily Telegraph article 22 March 2002 under the heading Priest quits advisory job.

Partners in crime - history!
Roger Rogerson, the old hero, who never faced a result in the Lanfranchi, or Huckstepp murders, was let off in my opinion when the New South Wales Government rolled the legal system (deciding what evidence to give the police prosecutor) to have the jury believe the illusion they (the Government wanted to create).Similarly, Peter Ryan facing the Police Integrity Commission for questions about his involvement in the demise of the dysfunctional reform unit. Chess in the court (rolling the legal system).

Police Chronology 1994-2001
View events in the NSW Police Force since the Wood Royal Commission began in 1994. 1994 May Justice James Wood is appointed Commissioner of the Royal Commission into the NSW Police Service ('WRC').